The coin is round in shape with a raised rim on the obverse and the reverse. The coin’s edge is milled.

The Obverse: featurea the portrait of the present Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS, FSNAD, year of issue - 2001.

The Reverse: in the center the glass panes of the Crystal Palace providing an appropriate background for a portrait of the young Queen Victoria. The portrait itself is closely modelled on the classically beautiful Young Head created for Queen Victoria's coins by William Wyon but adopted, too, for use on the new stamps when the Penny Post, one of the most important innovations of the Victorian age, was set up in 1840.